Australian Edition of Macs Navy Links up

[maccdale]

Just wanted to let you all know I have just posted an entire website of pictures dealing with the Royal Australian Navy. It has taken me 3 months to go to Australia, take the pictures and post the site. The site has pages on:
Fleet Base East, Sydney
Garden Island Naval Museum, Sydney
HMAS Vampire, Onslow and Advance at Darling Harbour,
HMAS Castlemaine (Bathurst Class Minesweeper) in Melbourne (Cheers Kev!)
HMAS Diamantina (River Class Frigate) in Brisbane
HMAS' Sydney and Ballarat on Op Northern Trident, Port visit Halifax, Nova Scotia, my homeport.

It has been a extremely large task, but I wanted to present it as a whole as opposed to bits at a time. I still have interior series to do on HMAS Vampire, Oslow and Castlemaine. Stay tuned.

Please be warned some of the file sizes are large, as detail is important to ship modellers.

I do hope you will enjoy and get some use from the site...If you find errors, and I'm sure there are a few, please let me know. I give you, The Australian Edition...Please post to any and all sites you feel appropriate.

http://ran.macsnavylinks.ca/

[kookaburra]

Mac

Thank you so much for this wonderful presentation and so many magnificent photos. I for one feel it is an absolute privilege for this forum to have it here - again thanks for sharing it with us, and glad you enjoyed your trip here.

I wanted to show you a couple of pics of the first two ships you've featured, the 8534 ton HMAS Kanimbla (ex-USS Saginaw) and HMAS Manoora (ex-USS Fairfax County), showing how they looked when they first arrived in 1994, with their huge gallows horns forward.

I was posted away from Australia at the time they arrived, and was quite surprised when I saw this for the first time recently. The gallows were removed to create the forward helicopter decks. The conversions proved a bigger job than anticipated, but they're useful components of the fleet now. They each also have 40-bed hospitals aboard, the largest at present in the RAN.

Anyway, it's a great job you've done, and very polished. Cheers, K.

[harry.gibbon]

Mac, I am really enjoying going through your link/site... excellent pics.

I shall take my time thanks

Little h

[maccdale]

Thanks Much Kookaburra, I must admit I was facinated by the Kanimbla and Manoora, and I was dead chuffed to see them alongside. I heard they were in pretty ruff shape when they arrived. The whole family loved our visit, we will be back....Quite possibly to stay.

Mac

Thank you so much for this wonderful presentation and so many magnificent photos. I for one feel it is an absolute privilege for this forum to have it here - again thanks for sharing it with us, and glad you enjoyed your trip here.

I wanted to show you a couple of pics of the first two ships you've featured, the 8534 ton HMAS Kanimbla (ex-USS Saginaw) and HMAS Manoora (ex-USS Fairfax County), showing how they looked when they first arrived in 1994, with their huge gallows horns forward.

I was posted away from Australia at the time they arrived, and was quite surprised when I saw this for the first time recently. The gallows were removed to create the forward helicopter decks. The conversions proved a bigger job than anticipated, but they're useful components of the fleet now. They each also have 40-bed hospitals aboard, the largest at present in the RAN.

Anyway, it's a great job you've done, and very polished. Cheers, K.

[CYLLA]

macc

Your a lucky lot ,to have such a fine collection of old ships , it really put,s us all to shame in u.k thanks for the links.

cylla

[Hixy]

macc, thanks for the pics on your site. It was really great to look through the old and the new.

If I might offer some help with some of your titles. The Vampire pics. Guns on all but DDG's were call Turrets and they were A Turret, B Turret and X Turret being the one at the stern on Vamps. DDG's were Mount 51 and Mount 52.

The flaghoist is VKMC which is Vampires International (Radio) callsign.

The Long Range Radar is called an LWO2

Finally, there is no such thing as a 'fantail' in the RAN. It was always called the Quarterdeck.

Funny that the museum has put a red kangaroo on the funnel of the Vampire. When it was commissioned it always had a black bat attached to the funnel.

A good site.

[astraltrader]

Mac - Superb photographs of an excellent size and wonderfully presented.

A definitive tour of Australia`s preserved warships.

In a class of its own.

[kookaburra]

Thanks Much Kookaburra, I must admit I was facinated by the Kanimbla and Manoora, and I was dead chuffed to see them alongside. I heard they were in pretty ruff shape when they arrived. The whole family loved our visit, we will be back....Quite possibly to stay.

Mac, I knew I had a couple of other pics somewhere of Kanimbla in her original shape from a Naval Historical Society collection. As your fine pics show, part from the gallows removal the superstructures of both Kanimbla and Manoora were also considerably built up aft - effectively doubled.

[maccdale]

Thanks Mate, I`ll get those revisions up as soon as I get the energy to pick it up again. So anyone have any tips for a bloke off to Perth, Darwin and Cairns for ships and museums to cover. I`m planning my return as we speak...Australia just does something to a guy...


macc, thanks for the pics on your site. It was really great to look through the old and the new.

If I might offer some help with some of your titles. The Vampire pics. Guns on all but DDG's were call Turrets and they were A Turret, B Turret and X Turret being the one at the stern on Vamps. DDG's were Mount 51 and Mount 52.

The flaghoist is VKMC which is Vampires International (Radio) callsign.

The Long Range Radar is called an LWO2

Finally, there is no such thing as a 'fantail' in the RAN. It was always called the Quarterdeck.

Funny that the museum has put a red kangaroo on the funnel of the Vampire. When it was commissioned it always had a black bat attached to the funnel.

A good site.

[maccdale]

Nice, I hear they are very capable ships, cant wait to see the new LHDs,

I wish Canada was as forward thinking as Australia...


Mac, I knew I had a couple of other pics somewhere of Kanimbla in her original shape from a Naval Historical Society collection. As your fine pics show, part from the gallows removal the superstructures of both Kanimbla and Manoora were also considerably built up aft - effectively doubled.

[John O'Callaghan]

Mac. Re your proposed trip down under.Perth visit the West Australian Maritime Museum at Freemantle which has a great display of maritime history including a walk through of an O class submarine.In Darwin there is not a great deal of naval memoriabilia but there is a monument to USS Peary a destroyer sunk during Japanese air raid in 1942.There's also a visit to the old naval oil fuel tanks (underground) built during WW2 but in a sad state of preservation. there is also some good military fortifications at East Point and a good aviation museum.I'm not aware of a great deal of naval historical stuff in Cairns.All three place offer some good potential for warship spotting though as the RAN has bases in each.

[maccdale]

macc, thanks for the pics on your site. It was really great to look through the old and the new.

If I might offer some help with some of your titles. The Vampire pics. Guns on all but DDG's were call Turrets and they were A Turret, B Turret and X Turret being the one at the stern on Vamps. DDG's were Mount 51 and Mount 52.

The flaghoist is VKMC which is Vampires International (Radio) callsign.

The Long Range Radar is called an LWO2

Finally, there is no such thing as a 'fantail' in the RAN. It was always called the Quarterdeck.

Funny that the museum has put a red kangaroo on the funnel of the Vampire. When it was commissioned it always had a black bat attached to the funnel.

A good site.

Cheers Mate, I just finished making the corrections as you so kindly pointed out. Injured at work last week, so I have some time on my hands. All the best,
Mac

[maccdale]

Mac. Re your proposed trip down under.Perth visit the West Australian Maritime Museum at Freemantle which has a great display of maritime history including a walk through of an O class submarine.In Darwin there is not a great deal of naval memoriabilia but there is a monument to USS Peary a destroyer sunk during Japanese air raid in 1942.There's also a visit to the old naval oil fuel tanks (underground) built during WW2 but in a sad state of preservation. there is also some good military fortifications at East Point and a good aviation museum.I'm not aware of a great deal of naval historical stuff in Cairns.All three place offer some good potential for warship spotting though as the RAN has bases in each.

Cheers, that means I have a bit more time to enjoy the sun and culture...
Ian

[maccdale]

Auckland, Sydney, Adelaide, Uluru and then Cairns and Townsville for the 2010 tour. At this rate the Australian Edition will have more pics than the main site! May to June, looking forward to coming back!

Best to all,
Mac

http://ran.macsnavylinks.ca/

http://macsnavylinks.ca/

[Jackaroo]

Auckland, Sydney, Adelaide, Uluru and then Cairns and Townsville for the 2010 tour. At this rate the Australian Edition will have more pics than the main site! May to June, looking forward to coming back!

Best to all,
Mac

http://ran.macsnavylinks.ca/

http://macsnavylinks.ca/


Hope you can get a few phots, and if your really lucky score a visit on board an Armidale Class Patrol Boat (ACPB) if any are in when you get to HMAS Cairns. If not you will just have to watch Sea Patrol :eek::D

Keep up the good work mate

[maccdale]

Does anyone know of a reputable source of Naval movements in Australia or New Zealand? Seawaves is a relatively good source, but the focus is more Northern Hemisphere. I ask because I would like to get some underway shots of ships coming or going from Sydney, Adelaide, Cairns or Auckland while I'm down there.

Does anyone know if HMAS Townsville is actually open at the museum? I have tried emailing several times with no answer.

Any assistance would be most appreciated.